King Zhou's twenty-fourth year.
Grand Preceptor Wen personally led an expedition against Western Qi, but failed to win. He went to Golden Turtle Island and invited the Ten Heavenly Lords.
King Zhou's twenty-fifth year.
The Ten Heavenly Lords set up the Ten Absolute Formations before Western Qi's gates. Of the ten formations, the Heaven's End, Earth Rending, Wind Roar, Frozen Ice, Golden Light, and Blood-Transforming Formations were successively broken. Seeing that the situation had turned unfavorable, Grand Preceptor Wen mounted the Black Qilin and went to Luofu Cave on Mount Emei to invite Zhao Gongming down from the mountain.
King Zhou's twenty-sixth year.
Zhao Gongming slaughtered in every direction, powerful as a war god.
Zhao Gongming was struck by the Nailhead Seven Arrows Book and spent every day snoring in deep sleep, unable to rise again.
The Blazing Flame, Soul-Falling, and Red Water Formations of the Ten Absolute Formations were successively broken, leaving only the Red Sand Formation.
Zhao Gongming croaked. Jiang Ziya had bowed to him three times a day, and after twenty-one days, bowed him to death.
Why twenty-one instead of forty-nine or sixty-four? Perhaps because of the three souls and seven spirits—three times seven made twenty-one days of bowing.
Reasonable!
Come to think of it, the Nailhead Seven Arrows Book was an upgraded version of "sticking pins into a little effigy." Even among crooked side paths and heterodox ways, it was a crooked side path; it had entered the realm of Demonic Beings and deviant ways. Once you used this thing, it became hard to wag your finger at others from the moral high ground.
Talking trash behind someone's back was already immoral. Cursing someone behind their back, even cursing them to death, was not only immoral but also an offense against the harmony of Heaven.
Retribution